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"Well Laura, I guess this is going to have to be goodbye" I said and smiled at her. I had managed to discretely get a car to make the trip to Las Vegas – a plane wasn't possible, it just wasn't safe for me to be out in the open yet.

"What… why? Are you going away for the weekend?" She seemed really gloomy.

"No, I um… Have to be somewhere…" I felt a bit guilty just leaving her. From what I'd gathered – information about her and so on – she had no, or couldn't remember any of her family members. She was here by herself and I had been a comfort to her. I felt that I'd owed her at least part of the truth. "… well actually I have to find someone"

"Who?" she was suddenly eager for information, a big change from her earlier gloominess. "Do you know where they are, do you know what their name is"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Laura, take a chill pill seriously. No, I don't know most of those things and- … why do you care so much anyway?" It suddenly hit me that I really didn't know too much about Laura, I mean we were friends but, I didn't know about her past and she didn't know about mine (of course.)

Then again, she had been a good friend the last few weeks, she had listened to my moaning without complaint when she did not even know what I was complaining about, she had also convinced me not to stay holed up in my hotel room the whole time. No, I couldn't just jump to conclusions for no reason.

Laura seemed to be standing there quite shocked at my words while I thought this all over. I felt bad so I apologized

"Sorry Laura, it's just that you suddenly wanted to know more and, well it might sound stupid but I didn't know if I could trust you." I gave her an apologetic glance but was surprised to see she wasn't focused on me anymore; her eyes had glazed over – like the eyes of Lissa's compulsion recipients, or me when I'm in Lissa's head. She was murmuring something too low for me to hear. She suddenly snapped out of her trance and quickly said to me

"Rose, I need to tell you something"

"What?" She seemed to be fighting some inward battle again and was struggling to get the rest out.

"I…" she faltered "I know a place that can get you a car cheap."

I smiled sadly at her "It's alright, I already have a car"

"Oh, okay."

"Well… Bye" I was never good at the whole goodbye thing so I turned around and started to walk down the street, I wondered if she was alright, I turned around to wave one last time and I couldn't see her. Strange, maybe she had to leave quickly. I kept walking about a minute and then I heard her voice yell out

"ROSE!"

"Laura! What do you want, I know you want me to stay but I have to go now" I said, slightly irritated, but before I could get anything else out she said

"Can I come with you?" the words tumbled out in a rush.

"What?"

"Can I… come with you… who knows might be interesting" she was out of breath from running to catch up with me.

I really didn't have time for this so I just said yes, I wanted to get to Vegas in at least two days, I mean... I did plan to sleep! And I couldn't speed, lest I get a ticket, that's the very last thing I need. "Yeah sure, whatever. Meet me out the front of the service station near your place"

"Yeah I know the one"

I walked off and this time wasn't called back again.

Early in the Morning the next Day…

I got up early – around 4am – and packed my few belongings into a grey backpack. I did one last minute check that I had everything. Cash, change of clothes, cell phone, ID, lighter (to burn any Strigoi bodies) and silver stake… yep, all the essentials were there.

I didn't bother checking out of my hotel, I just left the keys at the front desk and went.

I had bought a cheap black 4-wheel drive using some of the money Abe had given me, and I had made sure the windows were tinted so that no passing speed cameras or anything could see my face.

I slowly turned into the service station near Laura's apartment and went to fill up the car. When I got back, she was already sitting in the car, feet on the dash and fiddling with the radio stations.

"Make yourself at home why don't you then" I said to her

"Well, I don't want to listen to any of the freaky music your into"

"How do you know that im into freaky music… we might like the same stuff"

"Trust me Rose, you and freaky go hand in hand down crazy road."

"Sometimes I think you're the one that should be in a psycho hospital Laura"

"Sure, sure Rose…" she smiled at me and I smiled back glad that we had already become comfortable together.

After all, there's nothing worse than a long car trip where you can't cut the tension with a knife because Dimitri wont admit his feelings for you because your both going to be Lissa's guardian and there's an age difference between you… did I really just think that? Man, I am messed up.

I started the car up and we left. We were driving for a while, just listening t the radio, then a song came on that we both knew so we started to sing together. We were dancing in our seats and being total douche bags. That is pretty much how the rest of the trip was too. Just us listening to music and having fun. Laura and I were not best friends, but we were close enough that spending the long amount of time together wasn't that bad. I was glad I had let her come because even though it would have been nice to sit with my thoughts for a bit, I know I would have gone crazy without anyone to talk to and just a big long road in front of me.

It was about 10.30pm, we pulled into the first hotel we saw because it had been a long day, and we were both exhausted. I went inside to see if we could get s room and Laura waited in the car. They had a room but we had to share a double bed, that was fine with me, I didn't really care. I went outside to tell Laura to get what she wanted out of the car and come with me because it was cold but she wasn't there. I went back to the office to see if she had come to get me, she wasn't there either. I was starting to get really worried…

"Laura?... LAURAAAAAAAA!"

I turned a corner and saw her just as the familiar nauseous feeling washed over me… the 'sixth sense' that told me, there was a strigoi nearby.